Fall Is the Best Time to Plant Garlic

Fall is the best time to plant garlic, The Old Farmer’s Almanac says. Prepare the soil for garlic by tilling thoroughly and adding compost or manure. Plant individual cloves from a head of garlic with the point end up 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart, and mulch the bed with straw or leaves. Like onions and leeks, garlic will mature around the summer solstice, sending up a curled, edible flower stalk known as a scape. Harvest garlic about six weeks later, when its above-ground leaves turn brown. Hang the plants in a shady spot to dry for about a month before cleaning and storing the bulbs.